Farmyard Detente
Poor Lexi got two comeuppances this morning--one from the Mama cat, and one from the Papa Guinea. They both came after her, weapons at the ready, and she wisely turned tail and ran. I felt a little sorry for her since she wasn't really acting very threatening, but detente is a good situation when it concerns residents of a farmyard.
Come to think of it, Hiromi yelled at her too--when she ran toward the garden where Hiromi had just spotted a skunk. Lexi obediently cleared out and gave Hiromi a chance to retrieve his shotgun and dispatch the skunk.
When Hiromi was ready to leave for work, we had to disturb her again. The cool, breezy resting spot under his car wasn't a safe place anymore, but she was reluctant to leave it. She came when I called her though. Hiromi wasn't all the way out the drive before Lexi shifted over to the closest available vehicle and crawled under the minivan. That low-to-the-ground Welsh Corgi profile has its benefits.
**********************
The NOAA daily weather prediction icons look like a Halloween display. All the days are orange, with the word "hot" as a caption, and all the nights are black, with captions ranging from "partly cloudy" to "mostly clear". That rain we're praying for isn't registering in the forecast so far, although there was some thunderstorm activity north of us last night. Every day through at least next Wednesday is predicted to be over 100.
**********************
For the first time this summer, Hiromi and I have gotten a good handle on our weeding. While not quite every weed is eradicated, most of them are gone, and most of our garden areas are mulched. We've done part of it in miserably hot weather, and part of it early in the morning before Hiromi had to leave for work.
*********************
We miss Bill at Fairview, but Steve took good care of us this week when both our vehicles needed attention--for a price, of course. Being able to use Shane's car while they're on chorus tour really helped us make things work while the vehicles were at Fairview.
"My favorite car," Hiromi said when he was ready to leave this morning and got into his 1984 Chevy Caprice with the buggered-up right front corner and the flapping-in-the-breeze shredded interior roof lining. I can't think of anyone else that would speak so tenderly about this car, but we already know that Hiromi's tolerance level in this matter is phenomenal.
*********************
We've ordered all the flooring for the Trail West house, and the carpeting is installed in the one bedroom we decided to carpet. The dining room and living room already have a hardwood floor. All the other rooms are getting various types of floating floors that are relatively easy to install ourselves.
The cork and the strand bamboo were purchased online from Cali Bamboo, after we did a lot of reading and some investigation of local options. Even with pricey shipping, we could still get it cheaper online, and felt confident that we were getting good quality. None of the local shops seemed to have any special knowledge of or experience with either one, and we decided we didn't need their help with this. The cork comes in click-together planks and the bamboo comes in click-together boards--which I think we will bind together with a bead of glue.
I'm still a little surprised at what we decided on for the kitchen--a tile-look laminate. The guy at Thomas Flooring told me that is the product with the best price point. In other words, the quality for the price is the best he has to offer. It comes in click-together planks about 15 x 50 inches. He laid to rest my main reservation by saying about the danger of water damage, "I wouldn't spill water on it and go off and leave it, but I'm really sloppy with how I mop this floor [pointing to a display section in his store] and I've never had a problem with water infiltration."
All the glue-down stuff would have called for a pricey underlayment--more money than for the vinyl itself, and the sheet vinyl would have been trickier to install ourselves. The dimensions of the kitchen would have necessitated seams or a huge amount of waste if we had gone with sheet vinyl. I had always pictured wood-grain patterns in laminate, and realized when I saw the tile pattern that there were more options than I knew about. For this choice, I needed expert advice, and felt good about giving business to the private shop on Main Street in Hutchinson.
Wolcott's on 4th was a good choice for our carpeting. They had a good quality remnant piece in a neutral color for a good price, and they got it installed promptly.
I suppose our many different types of flooring choices would give some installers and decorators nightmares, but I think we'll like all of them. All of them open into the living or dining room, and all of them will look OK with an oak hardwood floor, with either neutral coloring in manmade materials, or made of neutrally colored natural materials. The varying purposes for each of the side rooms will be very nicely accommodated by what we chose--bamboo, which, when strand-manufactured is harder than oak, for the study, where no one ever gets down on the floor. Cork for the middle room, which might become the spare bedroom/exercise room, where both firmness and softness come together nicely in sound and shock absorbing cork, and nylon carpeting, for a cozy master bedroom. All the non-carpeted areas are allergy-friendly, and the one carpeted area is at least two rooms away from all the regularly used outdoor entrances--thus less likely to get outside dirt tracked in.
Plus the two private flooring shops--Wolcott's and Thomas Flooring--we patronized Star Lumber for our kitchen counter laminate, Lowes for the patio doors, and Home Depot for paint and lots of odds and ends, so we feel like we've done our bit to invest locally and economically, even with some of our product being shipped in. Matt K. and Myron B. are two local craftsmen/handymen who will help with some of the work. We probably didn't get bottom dollar on everything, but we got help where we needed it, and got fair deals all around.
Come to think of it, Hiromi yelled at her too--when she ran toward the garden where Hiromi had just spotted a skunk. Lexi obediently cleared out and gave Hiromi a chance to retrieve his shotgun and dispatch the skunk.
When Hiromi was ready to leave for work, we had to disturb her again. The cool, breezy resting spot under his car wasn't a safe place anymore, but she was reluctant to leave it. She came when I called her though. Hiromi wasn't all the way out the drive before Lexi shifted over to the closest available vehicle and crawled under the minivan. That low-to-the-ground Welsh Corgi profile has its benefits.
**********************
The NOAA daily weather prediction icons look like a Halloween display. All the days are orange, with the word "hot" as a caption, and all the nights are black, with captions ranging from "partly cloudy" to "mostly clear". That rain we're praying for isn't registering in the forecast so far, although there was some thunderstorm activity north of us last night. Every day through at least next Wednesday is predicted to be over 100.
**********************
For the first time this summer, Hiromi and I have gotten a good handle on our weeding. While not quite every weed is eradicated, most of them are gone, and most of our garden areas are mulched. We've done part of it in miserably hot weather, and part of it early in the morning before Hiromi had to leave for work.
*********************
We miss Bill at Fairview, but Steve took good care of us this week when both our vehicles needed attention--for a price, of course. Being able to use Shane's car while they're on chorus tour really helped us make things work while the vehicles were at Fairview.
"My favorite car," Hiromi said when he was ready to leave this morning and got into his 1984 Chevy Caprice with the buggered-up right front corner and the flapping-in-the-breeze shredded interior roof lining. I can't think of anyone else that would speak so tenderly about this car, but we already know that Hiromi's tolerance level in this matter is phenomenal.
*********************
We've ordered all the flooring for the Trail West house, and the carpeting is installed in the one bedroom we decided to carpet. The dining room and living room already have a hardwood floor. All the other rooms are getting various types of floating floors that are relatively easy to install ourselves.
The cork and the strand bamboo were purchased online from Cali Bamboo, after we did a lot of reading and some investigation of local options. Even with pricey shipping, we could still get it cheaper online, and felt confident that we were getting good quality. None of the local shops seemed to have any special knowledge of or experience with either one, and we decided we didn't need their help with this. The cork comes in click-together planks and the bamboo comes in click-together boards--which I think we will bind together with a bead of glue.
I'm still a little surprised at what we decided on for the kitchen--a tile-look laminate. The guy at Thomas Flooring told me that is the product with the best price point. In other words, the quality for the price is the best he has to offer. It comes in click-together planks about 15 x 50 inches. He laid to rest my main reservation by saying about the danger of water damage, "I wouldn't spill water on it and go off and leave it, but I'm really sloppy with how I mop this floor [pointing to a display section in his store] and I've never had a problem with water infiltration."
All the glue-down stuff would have called for a pricey underlayment--more money than for the vinyl itself, and the sheet vinyl would have been trickier to install ourselves. The dimensions of the kitchen would have necessitated seams or a huge amount of waste if we had gone with sheet vinyl. I had always pictured wood-grain patterns in laminate, and realized when I saw the tile pattern that there were more options than I knew about. For this choice, I needed expert advice, and felt good about giving business to the private shop on Main Street in Hutchinson.
Wolcott's on 4th was a good choice for our carpeting. They had a good quality remnant piece in a neutral color for a good price, and they got it installed promptly.
I suppose our many different types of flooring choices would give some installers and decorators nightmares, but I think we'll like all of them. All of them open into the living or dining room, and all of them will look OK with an oak hardwood floor, with either neutral coloring in manmade materials, or made of neutrally colored natural materials. The varying purposes for each of the side rooms will be very nicely accommodated by what we chose--bamboo, which, when strand-manufactured is harder than oak, for the study, where no one ever gets down on the floor. Cork for the middle room, which might become the spare bedroom/exercise room, where both firmness and softness come together nicely in sound and shock absorbing cork, and nylon carpeting, for a cozy master bedroom. All the non-carpeted areas are allergy-friendly, and the one carpeted area is at least two rooms away from all the regularly used outdoor entrances--thus less likely to get outside dirt tracked in.
Plus the two private flooring shops--Wolcott's and Thomas Flooring--we patronized Star Lumber for our kitchen counter laminate, Lowes for the patio doors, and Home Depot for paint and lots of odds and ends, so we feel like we've done our bit to invest locally and economically, even with some of our product being shipped in. Matt K. and Myron B. are two local craftsmen/handymen who will help with some of the work. We probably didn't get bottom dollar on everything, but we got help where we needed it, and got fair deals all around.
posted by Mrs. I at
9:02 AM
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